The Hidden Assassins: A Novel

by Robert Wilson

Overview

As perplexing murder leads a Spanish detective into the dangerous cultural tensions of Seville in this thriller by the author of A Small Death in Lisbon.
 
Chief Inspector Javier Falcón is called to the disturbing scene of a faceless, mutilated corpse found in a municipal dump. But just as he begins his investigation, the beautiful city of Seville is rocked by a massive explosion. The discovery of a mosque in the basement of a destroyed apartment building confirms everybody's terrorist fears. Panic sweeps the city and the region goes on red alert. 
 
As more bodies are dragged from the rubble, the media coverage and political pressure intensify, Despite immense pressure to close the case, Falcón suspects that all is not what it appears to be. But just as he comes close to uncovering a deadly conspiracy, he makes the most terrifying discovery of all. Now the race is on to prevent a catastrophe far beyond Spain's borders.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547540283
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	06/11/2020
Series:	Javier Falcon Series , #3
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	468
Sales rank:	745,674
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

ROBERT WILSON is the author of numerous novels, including The Company of Strangers and A Small Death in Lisbon, which won the Gold Dagger Award as Best Crime Novel of the Year from Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked in shipping, advertising, and trading in Africa, and has lived in Greece, Portugal, and West Africa.

Editorial Reviews

Modern terrorism is uppermost in the minds of those who populate Robert Wilson's new novel, but the engines driving The Hidden Assassins through to its satisfying, nuanced finish are old human emotions: greed, obsession, love … the novel forges a link between personal calamity and greater terror concerns.
— The Washington Post

Sarah Weinman

At the start of Wilson's strong third mystery set in Seville featuring police Insp. Jefe Javier Falc n (after The Vanished Hands and The Blind Man of Seville), the mutilated body of a nude male turns up in a municipal dump. Before Falcon has time to investigate, a huge bomb explodes in a mosque and flattens an apartment complex and a day-care center. Was it an Islamic bomb-making operation gone awry? A specific attack against Muslims? Or the work of separatists fighting to return Andalusia to Muslim rule? Falc n has a dark and tangled personal history that provides several side plots, some of which are incorporated into the terror investigation and some of which are left to be taken up in further installments. Falc n 's investigation is as detailed and meticulous as the writing, which makes for a dense tale that demands close attention, but will reward careful readers with a story that has not only plenty of plot but also in-depth character intrigue. Author tour. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

On June 6, 2006, a powerful explosion levels an apartment block in a nondescript area of Seville, Spain. Inspector Jefe Javier Falc n (introduced in The Blind Man of Seville) is assigned the case, which grows more complex once he learns there was a mosque in the apartment's basement. The presiding investigative judge is philanderer Esteban Calder n, whose marriage to In s, Falc n's ex-wife, has gone bad. Falc n himself is in turmoil over his one-time lover Consuelo, who is now battling her own demons. Amid this psychological angst, the question becomes: Who was responsible for the bombing? Did the terrorists accidentally detonate the military-grade explosive, or was this an anti-Muslim attack? Although the psychological distress of some minor characters occasionally distracts, British writer Wilson does an excellent job of laying out the elaborate investigative procedures to be followed after a major terrorist attack. And, as in his earlier works (e.g., The Vanished Hand), his characters lead dramatically disturbing inner lives. For popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/06.] Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Inspector Jefe Javier Falc-n (The Vanished Hands, 2005, etc.) takes on "the largest criminal investigation in Seville's history" in his hunt for the terrorists who blew up an apartment building. There's no obvious sign of how the corpse in the Dumpster came to die, but since his hands and face have been painstakingly removed, it's clear that whoever killed him didn't want him quickly identified, and soon enough it's clear why: because he had some connection to the blast that leveled a block of low-income flats notable only for its basement mosque. Ever since the train bombs that pulled Spain out of the Iraq war, the nation has been suspicious of Muslims, and it isn't long before the hydra-headed investigation focuses on the community that worshiped every day in the devastated mosque. Falc-n's police work, working from one slender lead to the next, is a model of procedural logic, patience and clarity. What really makes his third case outstanding, however, is Wilson's mastery of an intricate web of subplots ranging far afield. As investigators interrogate witnesses, analyze coded messages and recruit acquaintances as spies, other citizens start psychotherapy, confront mistresses, find with amazement that their bereavement gives them a rare moral authority and seek personal revenge for their losses. The ambitious subject suits Wilson's formidable gifts perfectly, and the Spanish setting should make it easier for American readers to focus on the issues without getting distracted by references too close to home.

Kirkus Reviews